All posts tagged ‘DS’

There’s something undeniably different about the latest chapter in the Pokémon saga. For a series that has, for some 15 years, defined itself by retelling the same story time and again with slightly adjusted characters, the fact that it’s a direct sequel alone monkeys with the age-old formula. But this conceit is only the beginning.

I’ve always liked the idea of features converging into one gadget. Particularly when you are on the road it can help reduce the number of devices you need to take with you. But at the same time, I’m a believer that some activities warrant a dedicated device.

The 3DS is an interesting middle ground between these two for me. It is designed primarily to play games, but also offers a raft of other features that you can take advantage of largely for free. Because I’m usually focused on the games I don’t often put things like the Internet Browser and Letter Box message applications to the test.

In these two episodes of FGTV I lent a family a 3DS to take on holiday with them. Their mission was to use it to take pictures, find information online when they were abroad and keep in touch with us while they were away. We spent some time with them beforehand to see what their expectations were like as you can see above.

With the 3DS XL coming with a bigger battery and lasting longer than the original 3DS, my family got talking one breakfast time about which DS console would last the longest. My daughter thought that her DS Lite would outperform her brother’s 3DS. He thought that the DSi XL would last the longest because it was bigger.

The other day I decided to put it to the test with a time lapse video. After talking through how best to test the systems we agreed that they would all be on full brightness and with any WiFi off. We would also include the GBAs and original Gameboy in the test for some extra fun.

As we talked it through it became apparent that we couldn’t make this truly objective. After all, our DS and Gameboy and 3DS consoles are all different ages and would be running different games. But this first run test could be a good starting point for further configurations.

Something you learn to expect with any popular gadget is a yearly round of revisions. With the 3DS launch last year on March 27th we were due an update for Nintendo’s new handheld. On August 19th the 3DS XL arrives in stores along with New Super Mario Bros 2.

With the unit expected to retail on Amazon for $199.99, not much more than the $189.99 original 3DS, choosing which handheld console is right for you needs some careful consideration. Similarly, deciding whether you should upgrade is also a tricky matter — and one you may want to resolve before the 3DS XL is released if you want to sell your original 3DS for the most money.

I got my hands on the system for a 3DS XL family review, but before I get into a detailed look at the unit itself let’s get some of the other specifics out the way.

Firstly, unlike in Europe and Japan the US 3DS XL comes with a charger. I’m not 100% sure why the other territories don’t get a charger — it’s an unusual decision — but actually I quite like the environmental angle here. In my house at least we already have more than enough compatible chargers (DSi, DSiXL and 3DS all use the some one).

Nobunaga’s Ambition stands out in my mind as a true anomaly; it was the video game I didn’t like. Sure, I’d played bad games before, flawed and un-enjoyable affairs – E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial on the 2600, for example – but it was the first title I’d encountered since Nintendo’s resurrection of the home console market that I simply didn’t get. I remember grainy textures and mountains of blocky, on-screen text. I remember arduous resource management and tinny, repetitive music. Moreover, I remember being utterly perplexed at finding absolutely no joy in it. Not having fun with a video game seemed, to my younger self, to be a deeply perplexing experience.

I didn’t grok turn-based strategy in 1989, but somehow a dozen years later that genre would become one of my favorites. Series like Advance Wars and Fire Emblem would eventually climb to the very top of my list of most cherished properties, and now, after more than two decades, the warlord Nobunaga looks poised to join their ranks. All it took was a little added maturity on my part. And a blessed infusion of Pocket Monsters.

Pokémon Conquest is as much a style mash-up as any you could imagine because, though the frantic turned-based combat of Pokémon and the deliberate tactics of Nobunaga’s Ambition may seem somewhat tonic, the fantastic streets of Vermilion City and the pseudo-historical realms of Ransei are light-years away. One is bubbly, cartoony and inviting, the other calculated, almost menacing with a myriad of opposing forces lurking around every bend. Still, the manner in which Conquest marries the two properties couldn’t be more satisfying. Continue Reading “Pokémon Conquest Takes No Prisoners” »

Some ideas are destined to be. Just as the coming together of Lego, Star Wars and a video-game was written in the stars, LEGO Lord of the Rings has been looming on the horizon as inevitably as night following day.

As Matt Blum recently posted, LEGO Lord of the Rings has recently been announced, along with a rather mouth-watering trailer. Hoping to spy some more information on the aforementioned game I booked myself in for an interview with producer Mick Ricks at E3. I wasn’t disappointed.

First off I got some hands-on time with the game, playing the section that takes us into Moria to face a Cave Troll. As you can see in the video, both the setting and the characters have that same usual finesse from both Lego and TT Games. As Ricks discusses at length, the focus here was to create the map and the world of Middle Earth and it is really telling in the gameplay.

Although it’s an odd comparison, it felt like Alan Wake to me. That game created an open world environment before carving their story through the hills of the mid-west. There, it created a real sense of being lost in the wilderness. Here, in LEGO Lord of the Rings, it creates the feeling of scale and that you are playing in a wider environment.

The story elements of the game also feel different here. The Lego games have long been known for their comical re-rendering of classic franchises, but in this game TT Games are able to use dialogue straight from the motion picture. Ricks talked about this enabling them to deliver a more authentic experience for the player.

Along with the environments, they are also aiming to take characters on more of a journey. Ricks talked about a sense of development from the diminutive start points for many of the heroes in the game. Whether that is Aragorn’s rise to power, or the hobbits growing lists of skills and equipment, it is interesting to hear that TT Games want to take this game in a more role-playing direction.

As I mentioned in my LEGO Batman 2 video, Ricks also confirmed that LEGO Lord of the Rings will provide a local multiplayer mode for the potable versions. This is the ability to play co-op with other players provided you both have a copy of the game, a feature that was previously dropped back in 2008.

LEGO Lord of the Rings will be available on 1st October and is available to pre-order on Amazon from $29.99.

I’d forgive TT Games for getting fed up with my constant complaining of their dropping the multiplayer modes from the portable Lego games. It had become something of a hobby horse of mine — not least because my family love this local co-op option that was absent from Lego games after LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures in 2008.

As you can see in my Batman 2 Development Review video here with Phil Ring it was with not a little surprise that I discovered local multiplayer would be returning to the portable Lego games in LEGO Batman 2 DC Heroes. Hot dang! Calling home from E3 later that day my kids literally “whooped” with joy to hear that they could play the game together when it’s released on June 19th ($29.99 on Amazon).

The feature enables two players to play through the main story together by linking their two portable systems. It does require two copies of the game as there is no support for game sharing at present.

Lego Batman 2 3DS

Also expanded upon in the interview is the introduction of a fully voiced story, open world elements and special challenges unique to the portable versions. Even for something like me who has been on TT Games’ back for a lack of innovation in recent years, the sheer amount of effort on display in LEGO Batman 2 is impressive.

I’m looking forward to trying out the local multiplayer (and other aspects of the game) first hand and will report back with a full review in due course. The kids have said they are happy to help with the research on this one.

LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes will be available June 1st on 360, PS3, Wii, Vita, 3DS, DS and PC on Amazon from $29.99. A cheaper alternative is the first LEGO Batman game which also supports local multiplayer and can be found on Amazon from $14.99.

Now I’m up to speed with the ins and outs of archery, after reading Jim MacQuarrie’s post about the Brave film trailer, I watched the trailer for the related game with some interest.

The focus here is on the action rather than technique from what I can make out. It will be interested to see how they make use of the motion controls. With not only a Wii version but PS3 Move and Xbox Kinect also being supported it looks like gestures will form a major part of the experience.

In the game, which takes the route of “inspired by” the film rather than “recreating it,” you play as Merida the female expert archer. The usual platforming actions of running, jumping and fighting are joined by plenty of arrow shooting and targeting as you play through the mythical Scottish landscape.

In addition to the single-player there’s a co-op mode to cater for multiple players at the same time, as well as a special Bear mode — although I’ve not quite figured out exactly what that is so far.

Brave: The Video Game will be released this Summer alongside the film. Interestingly it’s currently slated for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, DS and Windows PC/MAC — nothing mentioned about 3DS or Vita at this stage.

The desire for new, better and bigger seems buried deep in my children’s genes. Whether this is really nature or their being nurtured in a consumer culture I’m still not sure but this weekend we managed to escape the more-cycle.

My son had been saving up for Lego Batman 2, the latest in the Lego videogame series, and was working out whether he’d have enough money when the game lunches in June. A few calculations later and he looked downcast — it was going to take a lot longer to reach the $39.99 price tag.

An unbreakable toy is wonderful thing, not least for its ability to break other toys. But a broken toy, as I’ve discovered over the first few years with young children, can be just as much fun as when it was working.

We have a bag in our house that contains things we can’t send to charity shops or pass on to friends because they are broken, incomplete or damaged. It’s a holding area until we admit that these things need to go to the recycling center, and for the non-recyclable bits to land-fill.

Last week I realized that my four year old had been particularly quiet upstairs for a good hour or so — never a good sign — so I went to investigate. I found him sat surrounded by all our old junk as if he had discovered a chest of treasures.

I sat down next to him and asked him what he was doing. “I’ve found all these toys dad, in that old bag.” To him they weren’t broken toys or things that needed to be thrown away but fresh opportunities for fun.

As we picked through the detritus of our family’s plastic toy and gadget habit it reminded me of being a small boy myself, maybe about the age of my son, and of the games I used to make up with whatever toys I could find at the bottom of our old wooden toy chest.

We spent an afternoon together figuring out new games and discovering new fun with our all broken bits and bobs. In fact it went beyond just that afternoon and became a regular feature of family playtime. These are our top 4 broken toy games:

This harks back to my childhood collection of the big slot racer game. Over the years the track gets tarnished and bent and the circuits get ever harder to connect. Eventually I had to admit that some of my track was no longer useable — and not compatible with the newer Scalectrix connectors — so I consigned a bunch of them in the recycling bag.

My son had other ideas however. I discovered him putting the finishing touches to a marble run that took his shiny marble collection from one end of his room, through the hall and into the office. Having two tracks also meant that he could race two marbles down the course at the same time, something that resulted in a highly detailed pecking order for each of his marble collections.